1 dead after fire breaks out in Saanich, B.C. apartment building

One person has died after a fire broke out in an apartment building in Saanich, B.C., over the weekend.

Eighteen firefighters, three engines, a ladder and a rescue truck responded to the blaze in the 3200 block of Cook Street around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday.

They extinguished the flames within “minutes,” said Saanich Fire Department assistant deputy chief Trevor Stubbings, but tragically, one person was declared dead at the scene.

“The police are still working to notify next of kin,” he told Global News on Monday.

In an Oct. 31 tweet, the department said it carried out a “fast attack” that helped keep the damage contained to a single unit.

The building suffered minor smoke and water damage, said Stubbings, but is “structurally sound.”

“The fire was extinguished when I arrived,” he explained. “(Crews) did describe it as the windows were already broken from the heat and the smoke and flames were exiting through the windows.

“They were able to attack it from the exterior and put it out relatively quickly.”

No other injuries were reported, and the apartment’s occupants are back in the building after a brief evacuation on Sunday night.

Police and investigators attended the scene on Monday, as the cause of the fire remains under investigation, said the fire department.